Dr. Kohei Shitara is the Director of the Department of Gastrointestinal Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa in Japan. He received his medical degree from Tohoku University School of Medicine in 2002. Dr Shitara is an active member of ASCO and ESMO. He is working as one of the ESMO faculty member for Gastrointestinal Tumors, Upper digestive faculty group for the period 2021-2025. He is one of the organising members for Japanese gastric cancer treatment guidelines. Main research interests include development of new anti-cancer agents, optimal chemotherapy regimen for gastrointestinal cancer, and translational research. He is the primary investigator or study coordinator of several sponsor-initiated trials or investigator-initiated trials for gastric or colorectal cancer. He acts as one of steering committee members of several ongoing global studies in the field of GI cancers. He has reported more than 200 peer review publications which include approximately 100 articles as 1st author or corresponding author in major journals (NEJM, Lancet, Nature, etc.). He was recognised as one of Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate in 2022.